Matthew Stanley

Trained as a chef, first in California and then NYC, MS explores the daily connection between nature and our senses.

He takes influence from the sea he spent years surfing, from the weekly farmer markets with their cornucopia of shapes, color and scent, and now from the dynamic energy of Brooklyn.

The discipline and creativity required to be a chef has transferred to his ceramic studio, with his attention to glaze and shapes, and with his layering of colors and texture.

Starting with a classic shape, he adds and manipulates the shape, adding layers or peeling away layers and adding texture before the final glaze process. Unlike the rigid control a chef has in a kitchen, the loss of control during a kiln fire adds to the tension but always allows for the imperfections that create a personality and unique flavor within a piece..

His work is an intersection of the strange and the familiar, sometimes comforting, sometimes mysterious and always highly personal.